Last Day in Ukraine - Kiev

This is our last day in Ukraine: for this trip! We travelled to Kiev on Monday leaving Lutsk at 0521 and arrived at around 1200. The journey was uneventful mainly because I slept for ma lot of it. 

We went out to McD’s for a bite of lunch and then booked into our rooms at 1400. The room was lovely but we had to request a change of room as workmen were drilling through the wall next door and we were told they wouldn’t be finished until 1700. We couldn’t doze or work with the racket so we moved. 

Ukraine Trip Day 3

Today was a busy one. We had a good breakfast of omelettes at 0745 and then some of the group headed off to assist in the ‘sandwich making factory’! Feeding 112 people twice is quite a task. It was all done very well and to a high standard. 

The conference meetings started at 1030 with two Bible Teaching slots. I read and spoke on Psalm 37 about the seeming unfairness of life when bad people prosper and good people get it tough. Steve Buckeridge followed by speaking about the present work of the Lord Jesus on the believer’s behalf in heaven. It is so encouraging to know that we have a Saviour who is looking after us from heaven. He watches over us, acts on our behalf if and when we sin and draws along side us in the difficulties of life.

Ukraine Visit Day 1

Back in Ukraine. It’s been four years since my last visit which was for a wedding of a couple we have come to know very well. I first visited Ukraine in 2007 and looking back things have changed considerably since then. I dare say that the villages across the countryside may have not changed much but the towns and cities have developed. Shopping malls, industrial and business complexes are popping up everywhere. Wi-fi is available in every petrol station, mall or commercial centre. Cafes and Coffee Shops are quite sophisticated, in fact more so than many equivalent venues in the UK. 

Life moves on but in this country the majority do not benefit from these developments, only the wealthy and the upwardly mobile.

God is described in the Bible as unchanging and constant but He is also always up to date. Hebrews 13:8 states that Jesus Christ is ‘the same yesterday, and today, and forever’. God says, about Himself in Malachi 3:6 ‘For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed’.

You see, we constantly change things hoping to improve them. That is because we are all marked by sin as Romans chapter 3 verse 23 states, ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God’.

God never changes as He cannot improve Himself; He is perfect and complete and in no need of improvement. 

This is the reason why God sent His Son into the world as John chapter three states: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

John 3:15-21

My prayer is that you will be saved and changed into a person who glorifies God. 

Ukraine Visit Day 2

The main reason that I am in Ukraine is to preach at Easter meetings. The first meeting for adults was on Friday evening. This was preceded by two events run for children under the banner of Ukraine Children’s Care. The children were learning about salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Thomas (the children’s speaker) started by emphasising that humans were not created bad. When God made Adam he was innocent of any sin. Eve (Adam’s wife) disobeyed God’s instruction not to eat if the tree of good and evil and Adam followed her lead and did the same. Later in the Bible the situation is summarised in these words ‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,’ Romans 5:12. 

Getting & Giving

There is a lot of pain and misery in our world today, especially in the Middle East where a power struggle is taking place in Iraq, Syria and Iran, where ISIS is trying to get control to enforce Sharia law and secure the oil revenues of those countries.

Russia is similarly getting control of parts of the Ukraine, the Crimea has yielded to insurgents, and other areas are being targeted to usurp authority and control natural gas supplies through the country. All these acts of war are leaving thousands of people dead, men, women and children falling to military powers of one persuasion or another, but each wanting to get something that they do not have by force. Some refugees will have nothing to go home to, their homes and livelihood has been decimated.

In many countries materialism is affecting many individual lives; this longing to have more possessions is sapping the quality of life in many households. In Western society the god, Mammon, has taken hold and lotteries, bingo and other forms of gambling encourage covetousness. Companies are encouraging their management teams to be more assertive, an aggression that holds no thought for the good of others but rather the promotion of self.

Jesus said in Mark 8.36 “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 5:13 “There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?” 

Both texts ask the question what profit? and teach us that we brought nothing into the world and our hands will be empty when we leave the world. What is the point of being the richest man in the cemetery? And where will your soul be then?

Some Charities run television advertisements appealing to people to give two pounds a month to supply water to African villages, or to save children from malnutrition or being cruelly abused. Each appeal might touch the heart but not the pockets of ‘Joe public’. Sceptics say that these problems should not have money thrown at them but be resolved at their source by eliminating corruption, greed and selfishness.

Man’s giving is often measured and looks for something in return, but God’s giving exceeds anything and everything, He "so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son", to die on a cross for bankrupt sinners like you and me. 

Romans 8:31 reads like this , “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”  

Many people do not believe that God created this Earth and the systems that sustain life. Even the breath of air that you just took into your lungs was provided by God. You didn’t have to think about it yet there is enough for the billions of lives on this planet, but uniquely the same provision does seem to be in place for other planets. Physical life requires water and sunlight and God gives abundant supplies of each for earth dwellers, but not a drop on other planets, despite the fact that scientists and atheistic governments spend billions of dollars on space research looking for water to prove their doctrine that life evolved from water.

Jesus said in John 10, “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”  

Physical life involves the body, spiritual life relates to the soul and spirit. The spirit of an unbeliever is dead in trespasses and sins and needs to be born again in order to receive eternal life. Five times in the New Testament we read that Christ “gave himself”. The first one in Galatians 1:3 says, “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.” God the Father gave His Son, God the Son gave Himself, He died on the cross on account of our sins. 

In the next chapter Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” 

In 2 Corinthians 9:15 he said, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” Paul had great appreciation for being saved and to know his sins forgiven but there was something more, he received Christ Himself and the Holy Spirit.

When the rich man Zacchaeus got saved, Luke ch.19 says, “And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” 

Salvation changes lives and this tax collector’s life was changed and his perspective of getting and giving was changed too. He had a new heart and a new outlook on life. What he had, money could not buy, but faith obtained it freely by God’s grace. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  God bless.

This blog was written for FTMP by a Guest Blogger

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APPRECIATION AMONGST BETRAYAL

I have been reading chapter twenty six of the gospel of Matthew which records the events leading up to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. In amongst the stench of betrayal and hatred, Matthew looks back to a time in Bethany, a few days earlier, when he and the other disciples were in Simon's house with Jesus. The scent of spikenard, a precious costly anointment used to anoint bodies for burial, would still linger on His person. He would remember how that during the meal, Mary had entered the room, broken open a new casket of this immensely expensive oil and poured the lot, all over His head. There was so much of it that it trickled down His body and His feet instantly filling the air they breathed with it's intoxicatingly, heavenly scent.

Everyone was aghast. 'What a waste' they had said indignantly  - 'that should have been sold and given to charity'. They thought that investing in worship and demonstrating love for the Saviour was a waste of money. But they were missing the point. Lazarus, Mary's brother was in the room that day. Yet only a few days before, absolutely distraught, Mary and her sister Martha had anointed Lazarus's dead body with oil, wrapped him in grave clothes and participated in the burial service. By the time the Lord Jesus finally arrived three days later, Lazarus's body had already declined into stinking decay, all hope gone. Yet, they had stood with the Lord Jesus at the mouth of Lazarus's burial chamber and heard Him shout 'Lazarus come forth' and so he had, wound up in burial clothes, yet not a whiff of death upon him. 'Loose him and let him go' the Lord had said, and so they had, and so he sat with them at that meal, talking and eating like everyone else. Sorrow had turned to unconfined joy.

Mary knew, that if the Lord was to be crucified, it was entirely His choice. Death had no claim upon Him. She recognised Him as the holy Son of God, sent into the world to voluntarily lay down His life, as a perfect sacrifice to take away the stench of sin and death and hell for all those who wanted forgiveness from God. She showed her appreciation and ensured that the scent of spikenard would linger upon His body all through His sacrificial suffering until the time that He too rose again, breaking the bond of death forever. The Lord made it clear that He understood, silencing her critics and declaring that wherever the gospel is preached, her act of faith and love should be told as a memorial of her. 

What will you and I be remembered for I wonder? A life centred upon Christ? That is the only way to eradicate the stench of sin and be fit for the kingdom of heaven. I pray that the scent of Mary's worshipful act of appreciation will stir your heart today.

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